It comes as no surprise that BB 10 is the least watched series since the show began, with viewing figures down 33 per cent year on year, for the show’s first 53 days on air.

Admittedly, I have watched Big Brother in the past and although I would not say I have ever been a fan, I remember when it was more of a pioneering social experiment than a platform for shamelessly attention seeking oddballs, wannabes and bullies.

As the contestants have become more and more outrageous with each new series, it seems that Big Brother has finally lost its shock factor. The big personalities that have paraded across our screens for the past ten years (the gobby thick one, the glamour model, the super-confrontational-possible-psychopath, the one that throws tantrums, etc) have become predictable stereotypes and the contrived conflicts they find themselves in, a tired cliché.

And the tasks. Yawn. These have been especially mind numbing for years now but BB10 has somehow managed to lower the bar even further with ‘mini puppet pop groups’, ‘school sports day’ and the ‘this or that quiz’. I unwittingly caught the beginning of the name-changing task, when two contestants had to legally change their names to ‘Halfwit’ and ‘Dogface’ to avoid eviction. Hilarious (if you’re a 13-year-old with a below average IQ).

The other glaringly obvious reason why BB has become so very dull is the obscene amount of airtime it is allocated. An hour long prime time slot seven days a week on Channel 4, then again an hour later on Channel 4 + 1, repeated again in its entirety on T4 at the weekend, not to mention the infuriating live coverage on E4, complete with bird song to cover up the inane housemates’ inappropriate pre-watershed conversations. Even the constant Friends repeats are preferable to that.

Not only have viewers had to put up with the constant broadcast of Big Brother itself, there are also the numerous spin-off shows it has spawned over the years – Big Brother’s Little Brother, Big Brother’s Big Mouth, Big Brother on the Couch and, in honour of its 10^th anniversary (if only if it was in honour of its final series), Big Brother’s Big Quiz.

So Channel 4, Endemol, please, please, please do us all a favour and make BB10 the last one. Or if you insist on squeezing this cash cow until it’s mooed its last, why not air eviction night on Channel 4 as usual, and save the rest of the in-fighting, flirting, gossiping and posing for 4 on Demand?

ENDS